Saturday, November 7, 2009

FRIDAY NIGHT IN PARIS!!!

friday night in paris ...

yesterday, during theday, i walked around. just to see what i could see. to experience paris as a regular joe. it wasn't a sight seeing adventure. it was me just walking down the street. it was a great experience. the layout of the city is crazy! hella intricate and awkward for me right now. i haven't figured out the logic of it yet. i got lost a few times but found my way thanks to a few landmarks and metro signs! i didn't even ask people how to get back i just did it. i'm glad that i have a decent sense of direction and noticed a few landmarks! i walked down ST DENIS & across the lil bridge & along the little river for a second. it was kinda uneventful. but there was a club the looked kinda interesting.

it was cool to be able to walk around and not talk to anyone. with a creative, attention seeking, 13 year old in the house, there is limited silent time!

it was interesting to me that i fit in too. i feel so out of place here. i don't know what to wear. and i feel like my walk is different and i walk slow and don't have a scarf on [everyone here has these fly scarves]. but i guess this is a great step to start feeling comfortable. i know i can hang now.

i don't need to tell you that the architecture of the city is incredible. the church steeples, arches, cottages & flats are cool! i find myself looking at the intricate doorways and iron work around the city. and people watching. there's a certain freedom in the diversity in the people that is impressive too. now there are still cliques but from the outside looking in things look pretty cool. i imagine that the issues aren't based on race as much as they are on economic standings and "class".

and with all this ... the most impressive things i saw yesterday were ...

A KFC that was full of both black & white people!!!A pizza hut & another mcdonald's

AND ... i saw a dude rocking a redskins jacket! i wanted to take a picture but ... opted not to ... and he was a french dude ... not a tourist! i know because he was speaking french to the dudes on ST DENIS that were trying to get people to go to certain barber shops for a haircut! ST DENIS is the black hair spot in paris! it's pretty funny the way they tried to recruit ME to go get a cut ... they obviously don't know me!

last night was my first friday night in paris ... but ...i didn't know it until 8pm, our time! here's what happened ...

i left DC on wed after not having much sleep for almost 48 hrs ... and then i slept on the flight. i got to paris and it really didn't click that it was another day. so in my mind thursday was wed and yesterday was thursday. it didn't click until we were sitting at dinner and lil cuzzo says "so it's friday night what are we going o do!" i looked perplexed. she knew exactly what was going on in my mind."DUHHHHH ... yes ... it's friday!""DAMN!"

we ended up sitting around listening to music and sharing youtube favorites. this is my new favorite! evidently her name is Charice﻿ Pempengco. but wait until after you rad this to watch it ... you'll end up watching it a few times!!!

i'm sure that you would rather see pics of paris than this but you will be impressed and i'm working on the pics ... patience!

this morning we sang "o' say can you see" about 10 times ... and it was like a vegas showtune version f/ her as whitney houston/ceiline dion and me as lou rawls/wayne newton! yes ... it was ... interesting!

and after that ran it's course they introduced me to their saturday dance ritual. it's when they put on music and dance. it was cool! i did a little up rock and was inspired to the point that i almost hit a headspin on a michael jackson tune but opted to save that move for another day! ok, truthfully ... i was in the headstand and felt like i could do it ... i just didn't have the space if i fell... and yes ... i didn't want to kill myself!

anyway ... the shift in time it hasn't clicked yet ...so last night after we spent our quality time together i went out in the rain and just walked around. this time up ST DENIS. i got lost but found my way back and didnttake munch in ... i was cool. i needed that time alone to start to figure things out.i spoke to a friend here and we'll link on mon or tuesday.